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Episode 102 (4th December 1961)
Plot Ken begins his job as a Christmas relief postman. Dennis and Christine are surprised that the job is all he can get with his education, nevertheless Christine feels she also has few options in life with her lack of qualifications. The Canadian immigration office write to Ivan to say they want to see him. He expects to be leaving in some four to five months. Annie has been put to bed. Pushed by her, Jack passes on Dr Graham's diagnoses that she is suffering from mild nervous exhaustion. She has been put on pills. Jack refuses to discuss the renovations with her as it isn't good for her to get excitable. Swindley is worried about his lack of business. Emily points out they have little in stock for a suitable "jolly" Christmas window display. He wonders about asking for an overdraft. Christine helps out behind the bar. Annie feels woozy with her pills. She dislikes Christine's cheeky attitude and breaks down. Concepta talks her into getting out of bed and facing the world. Ivan returns from the immigration office to say that someone has cancelled a passage and they can leave within days. Linda can't bring herself to tell Elsie when she speaks of making their last Christmas together a special one. Minnie wants to buy a new hat but cries when she is refused credit. Emily explains the scheme has been stopped due to Swindley's financial difficulties. Swindley returns with the news that the bank has refused him an overdraft. Annie has gone back to bed. Dennis passes on a message from Ivan to Jack that he'll be late for work due to his having to make arrangements for their departure on the 6th December. The regulars overhear the news. Linda continues to keep Elsie in the dark. Elsie takes Linda and Dennis for a drink in the Rovers to celebrate a small horse win that she and Dot have had. Minnie tells Martha that Ena and her mother aren't getting on and her mother has taken to her bed again. Jack lets slip that the Cheveskis will enjoy a white Christmas in Canada and Elsie realises from everyone's facial reactions that she's the last to hear the news. Cast Regular cast *Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix *Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie *Linda Cheveski - Anne Cunningham *Ivan Cheveski - Ernst Walder *Kenneth Barlow - William Roache *Frank Barlow - Frank Pemberton *Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant *Martha Longhurst - Lynne Carol *Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie *Annie Walker - Doris Speed *Concepta Hewitt - Doreen Keogh *Florrie Lindley - Betty Alberge *Christine Hardman - Christine Hargreaves *Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth *Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson *Leonard Swindley - Arthur Lowe *Miss Nugent - Eileen Derbyshire Guest cast *Paul Cheveski - Victoria Elton (Uncredited) *Children - Peter Noone, Sidney Surrey, John Hanmer, Geoffrey Bratherton, Myra Gage, Lynda Belcher, Lorraine Bicknell, Jennifer Smet Places *Coronation Street *Rovers Return Inn - Public/snug and Jack and Annie's bedroom *9 Coronation Street - Back room *11 Coronation Street - Back room *Swindley's Draperies Notes *Emily Nugent quotes lines from the poem Welcome, Bonny Brid! by the Nineteenth Century Lancashire dialect poet Samuel Laycock. Ena Sharples quotes the same lines, and more, in Episode 1701 (4th May 1977) at Tracy Langton's christening party. *Eric Spear's usual theme is replaced over the "End of Part One" caption by a mournful piece of stock music following Linda Cheveski hearing Elsie Tanner talking about their last Christmas together being a special one, not knowing her duaghter's emigration to Canada has been rushed forward and is days' away. *In his 1981 autobiography The Street Where I Live, H.V. Kershaw remembered this and the following two episodes when he wrote that the production team employed children with speaking parts to circumvent the Equity actors' strike as they didn't need Equity cards to perform. He made specific reference to them playing milkmen and postmen, and in this episode Peter Noone appears as a milkboy with one of his friends volunteering to help him (Noone would appear two episodes later as Stanley Fairclough and three years later he achieved international fame as the lead singer in the pop group Herman's Hermits). Equity complained forcibly about this tactic and, not wanting to make a bad situation even worse, Granada dropped the strategy. Of the children listed as guest cast in this episode, only one of the girls actually appears on screen. It should also be noted that no child is ever seen to play a postman as Kershaw remembered being the case many years later. *''TV Times'' synopsis: Mr. Swindley runs into difficulties, and "Credit with Respectability" meets with hard times. The Cheveskis prepare to emigrate. Annie Walker takes to her bed. *Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 7,385,000 homes (1st place). Notable dialogue Minnie Caldwell (about her habit of crying): "Me mother says it because me eyes are too near me bladder." Category:1961 episodes